Friday, 1 November 2013

Fuming at Festivals

No, I
am not a killjoy, but I am definitely a supporter of ‘kill crackers’ – well,
because crackers kill. With Diwali just
around the corner, I’m sure we are looking forward to an enjoyable festive
season, not a fumes filled festival that leaves us all fuming!

It’s
rather strange, we are not a stupid people, and we know perfectly well the
dangerous chemical cocktail that firecrackers are composed of – we can probably
rattle off the names of the hazardous stuff they put into the crackers and the
ailments they cause – so why then do we spend thousands of rupees (even when
the economy is down and inflation is up) on actually harming ourselves? Forget
about burning a hole in our pockets, it’s more like they've burnt a hole in our
brains!

Probably
what we need is a cultural change. Talking about culture is treading on explosive
ground, people get all upset and uptight the moment you say something unsavoury
about culture. But yes, I repeat: we need a cultural change. Culture is not a
static sacred norm; it is a way of life that evolves over time. And in the
course of this evolution not everything that becomes part of our life – ‘our
culture’ – is right or good or perfect. Firecrackers, for example – to believe
that firecrackers are an indispensable ingredient of our festivals, that’s a myth
we need to correct, a custom we need to call a halt to.

Like
I said earlier, culture evolves – it’s definitely time to move on from crackers
to a more sensible, safer and happier expression of our celebrations. Flowers,
lanterns, stars, sweets, gifts, singing, dancing, we have a vast variety of
options to choose from. If we introduce a change today, someday soon we’ll be able to say: “No, there are
no firecrackers in our celebrations, crackers are just not part of our culture!”